New Delhi, June 5 -- Bengaluru and its immediate surroundings may have surpassed Mumbai as being the Indian metropolitan city with the largest leopard population. A year-long camera-trap survey found 80-85 animals in the forests and scrublands fringing the southern metropolis.

The survey was conducted by Holematthi Nature Foundation (HNF), led by conservation biologist and leopard expert Sanjay Gubbi, according to a statement.

It found that 54 of the 80-85 individuals are inside the Bannerghatta National Park (BNP). "The remaining ~30 leopards roam reserved, deemed and private forests scattered across the metropolitan periphery," according to the statement.

The team deployed more than 250 camera traps across 282 square kilometres of m...